Ohio and Cancel Culture: A Long History

Episode 6: “Ohio v. Cancel Culture”. Seems like everyone is getting cancelled these days from celebrities to political figures, Alex examines five historical examples of cancelled Ohioans to show cancel culture is not just a thing of the present. We sit down to tell 5 stories from the 18th, 19th and 20th Century Ohio that could just as easily been ripped from today’s headlines.

Alex talks with friend and host of the great podcast Whiskey Business, Dino Tripodis, about the famous oddsmaker and TV personality Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder of Steubenville, Ohio. We follow Jimmy the Greek’s improbable rise to stardom and his sudden fall from grace following a racist outburst in 1988. Check out Dino and his show Whiskey Business, also part of the Evergreen Podcast Network, here. http://www.whiskeybusinesspod.com

We head back to the 18th Century with Ohio author and historian, Kevin Kern, to discuss the cancellation of the first Governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair. Kern, author and Univ. of Akron history professor, talks about the St. Clair’s notorious military career and defeat in the Northwestern Indian War and his dictatorial reign as governor of the Ohio Territory in the late 18th and early 19th Century. We follow St. Clair’s career in the Midwest until he’s removed from power and cancelled by the Jefferson Administration. Click link to buy Kevin and Gregory Wilson’s great book on Ohio history, Ohio: A History of the Buckeye State. https://www.amazon.com/Ohio-History-Kevin-F-Kern/dp/1119708478

Kevin and Mark Wagoner take us through the career of controversial Senator William Allen of Chillicothe, OH. Kevin describes Allen’s prominence as one of Ohio’s most famous Democrats of the 19th Century, including becoming Governor in his 70s. Mark Wagoner describes the reasons behind removing Allen’s statue as one of Ohio’s two representatives in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol building and the process by which Allen was permanently replaced in 2016.

Kevin rejoins the show to discuss the sex scandal and cancelling of Rep. Wayne Hays in 1976. Kevin and I discuss his affair and coverup with his “secretary” Elizabeth Ray and the Belmont County natives downfall in the public eye in that bicentennial summer. We discuss why Wayne Hays was one of the meanest members of Congress and why nobody was sorry to see him go.

In a replay of an old episode from 2018, Alex sits down with author Patricia Miller to discuss her hit new book, Bringing Down the Colonel. Miller tells the story of a sex scandal involving a young Cincinnati college student, Madeline Pollard, and a powerful Congressman, William Breckinridge that would grip the nation’s attention in the spring of 1894. The landmark case of Pollard v. Breckinridge is analyzed for its groundbreaking verdict and how this story still resonates today in the mines of the #MeToo Movement. We strongly encourage you to purchase Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age and the Powerless Woman Who Took On Washington. https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Down-Colonel-Powerless-Washington/dp/0374252661

Contact Alex and the show at ohiovtheworld@gmail.com or on the podcasts’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter page. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts for any interest here http://www.evergreenpodcasts.com.

The Wow! Signal: When Ohio Made First Contact

Episode 2: Ohio v. the Universe: Are we alone? We analyze the Wow! Signal, what many consider the first legitimate contact with an extraterrestrial source, which happened in Ohio in August 1977. Alex goes all in on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), the history, the science and the most fascinating moment in SETI at the Ohio State Radio Telescope in Delaware, Ohio.

We sit down with the director and writer of the documentary Wow Signal, Bob Dawson and Michael Shaw, respectively. We discuss their excellent movie, “the SETI life” and attempt to debunk the source of the Wow Signal: 6EQUJ5. Alex meets with radio astronomer, Bob Dixon, who spent 49 years at Ohio State and headed up the Ohio State Radio Telescope that may have made first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Our 4th guest and one of my favorite interviews of all time, Tom Burns, the former director of the Perkins Observatory and professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. Tom talks about the Big Ear telescope, the Wow Signal and the recent UAP sightings and Congressional hearings. Tom also gets our listeners ready for the total solar eclipse next week in North America and going directly over Ohio.

LINKS to our GUESTS:

Check out the Wow! Signal now streaming on Peacock. Bob Dawson and Michael Shaw’s Next Future Films website. https://www.nextfuturefilms.com/

Perkins Observatory click for history and programming information. https://www.owu.edu/about/offices-services-directory/perkins-observatory/

Book Recommendation of the episode: UFO by Garrett Graff (2023). Click here for this fantastic read on the history of UFOs in the US since the 1930s. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/UFO/Garrett-M-Graff/9781982196776

Contact the show at ohiovtheworld@gmail.com or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Check out the Evergreen Podcast Network for Ohio v. the World and hundreds of other great podcasts here https://evergreenpodcasts.com/